@ Red,
This really is annoying beyond belief, making changes to something that was perfectly fine (and found to be very useful to many users), only to screw it up royally makes me wonder the direction avast is taking.
The disappointing thing is this isn't the first change that has been made only to break something.
I can remember when beta testing way back in avast 4.x was unbelievably stable for a beta, not the beta testing appears to be a bit of a minefield. I have had to drop out of this beta testing sticking on avast! free 17.5.2296beta, any beta after that I was plagued by BSODs and I have lost the desire to continue that situation.